ARG is proud to be a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise in California and Oregon.
WHO WE ARE
In 1980, Stephen J. Farneth, FAIA, LEED AP and Bruce D. Judd, FAIA set up a desk and a coffee pot in a living room, and started Architectural Resources Group. All these years later, we still love history and consistently embrace the future. Our work encompasses some of the West Coast’s most iconic buildings and sites.
We are architects, planners, and conservators who believe in the value that history adds to modern life. With an appreciation for the past and an eye towards the future, ARG has pioneered many innovative conservation techniques through research, development, and implementation. As a result, ARG was one of the first preservation design firms to have an in-house conservation laboratory and to integrate architectural conservation into the practice of historic preservation.
In fact, integration permeates everything we do. Communication among our studios informs a cross-collaborative approach that leverages innovative technologies and fosters inter-disciplinary work to generate creative solutions — all in the service of giving communities a concrete link to the past that brought them to where they are today.
Headquartered in San Francisco, ARG has additional offices in Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon. In 2006, ARG was the recipient of the American Institute of Architects California Council’s “Firm of the Year” award, the highest honor AIACC can bestow on an architecture firm.
“Artistic features and historic details provide beauty, material texture, and human scale to the built environment, qualities that give people a sense of place and purpose. By connecting people to past generations, they also fulfill a need for touchstones, a connection to the past in a rapidly changing world.”
-Stephen J. Farneth, FAIA, LEED AP
Founding Principal
AIA 2030 SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT
ARG joined the AIA’s 2030 Commitment as a step towards deepening our promise to build sustainably to combat climate change. ARG is creating a Sustainability Action Plan that sets forth goals for continually improving our practice to bring our work to net zero carbon and for “greening” our offices to create healthy work environments. ARG is now a JUST organization. JUST is a transparency platform for organizations to disclose their operations, employment practices, financial investments, and community engagement. Learn more about our process towards becoming a Just organization here.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
ARG’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Task Force aims to provide anti-bias education and training to staff as it pertains to the fields of heritage architecture, planning, and conservation, and to identify opportunities to engage with and promote the inclusion and equity of historically underrepresented voices in the community. Read more about some of these projects here.
Our 2030 Challenge team and DEI Task Force both comprise members from all three offices who represent multiple disciplines and staff levels, including Principals.
ARG is a majority woman owned business and is very supportive of women in the workplace.